{"id":88796,"date":"2026-07-15T10:30:51","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T01:30:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/?p=88796"},"modified":"2026-07-15T11:08:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T02:08:18","slug":"podcast-column-from-coffee-houses-to-global-markets-the-london-metal-exchange","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/news\/88796","title":{"rendered":"[Podcast Column] From Coffee Houses to Global Markets: The London Metal Exchange"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">In this podcast column, showcasing the fourth episode &#8220;The Politics of Market Design&#8221; of Season 2 of Waseda University\u2019s English-language podcast \u201cRigorous Research, Real Impact,\u201d Associate Professor Jack Seddon (<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/fpse\/en\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">Faculty\u00a0of Political Science and Economics<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">) explores the history and transformation of the London Metal Exchange. <\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233117&quot;:true,&quot;134233118&quot;:true,&quot;134245417&quot;:true,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:1,&quot;335551620&quot;:1,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Drawing on his research in international political economy, Assoc. Prof. Seddon discusses how the London Metal Exchange evolved from its 19th-century origins in open-outcry trading to today\u2019s modern financial markets, highlighting how both market structure and the role of traders have changed over time.<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Spotify Embed: Market Makers: The Politics of Market Design (Assoc. Prof. Jack Seddon)\" style=\"border-radius: 12px\" width=\"100%\" height=\"152\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/episode\/0YUlfQktTRcyUBxG1OvBZX?si=Gl5SBTzvSfuGjSuh7k4ReQ&amp;utm_source=oembed\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">All eight episodes of Season 2\u00a0of\u00a0Waseda\u00a0University\u2019s English podcast \u201cRigorous Research, Real Impact\u201d\u00a0are\u00a0currently streaming for free on\u202f<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/61VF3lETynCBuXt1AxXjXK?si=3eba847f8061431e\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">Spotify,<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u202f<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/music.amazon.com\/podcasts\/e0aa1340-7af7-4227-9361-88eecc575214\/waseda-university-podcasts-rigorous-research-real-impact\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">Amazon Music<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">,\u202f<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/waseda-university-podcasts-rigorous-research-real-impact\/id1777915569\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">Apple Podcasts<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">, and\u202f<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/playlist?list=PLeA0hDJkLYZDjs3b58eEZ1WnkvNJf9e9R\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">YouTube<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134245417&quot;:false,&quot;335551550&quot;:1,&quot;335551620&quot;:1}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_88800\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/news\/86307\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-88800 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/assets\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2026.6.29-Eng-Pod-Column-Episode-4-cropped-banner.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1638\" height=\"943\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/assets\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2026.6.29-Eng-Pod-Column-Episode-4-cropped-banner.png 1638w, https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/assets\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2026.6.29-Eng-Pod-Column-Episode-4-cropped-banner-610x351.png 610w, https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/assets\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2026.6.29-Eng-Pod-Column-Episode-4-cropped-banner-768x442.png 768w, https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/assets\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2026.6.29-Eng-Pod-Column-Episode-4-cropped-banner-1536x884.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1638px) 100vw, 1638px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">You can read the full transcript by\u00a0clicking\u00a0the above episode banner.<\/p><\/div>\n<h2><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Question: Your research on the London Metal Exchange in your paper\u00a0<\/span><\/b><b><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u201c<\/span><\/i><\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tandfonline.com\/doi\/full\/10.1080\/09692290.2019.1650795\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><b><i><span data-contrast=\"none\">Merchants Against the Bankers\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/a><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0highlights how structural change in markets is a political process. Could you briefly introduce the London Metal Exchange and its key takeaways,\u00a0and also\u00a0explain how the role of traders has evolved from the 1870s to today, from open-outcry trading on the exchange floor to modern screen-based financial markets?<\/span><\/b><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134245417&quot;:false,&quot;335551550&quot;:1,&quot;335551620&quot;:1}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Professor Seddon (1:50):<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span data-contrast=\"auto\">The\u00a0London Metals Exchange is actually a really fascinating and quite unique institution. Its history goes all the way back into the 19th century, into the Victorian era. So, it was established in 1877, and it was established by metals merchants for metals\u00a0merchants, which were basically traders in London that were tired of producer pricing and smelter prices and wanted to establish a kind of more transparent way of producing metals prices, specifically at that time for tin and copper contracts. And it really is a kind of quintessential London Victorian institution.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134245417&quot;:false,&quot;335551550&quot;:1,&quot;335551620&quot;:1}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">So, it was set up on a coffee shop floor in a very famous coffee house known as the Jerusalem Coffee House, where lots of traders gathered.\u00a0And they actually used to draw a circle on the floor of that coffee shop and organize their trading around that circle.\u00a0And that circular structure persists\u00a0into\u00a0the present day.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0known as the ring dealing system of the London Metals Exchange. So that marketplace is specifically for what\u2019s known as non-ferrous metals, which you can basically think about as industrial metals or non-precious metals, so not like gold and silver, but things like aluminum, copper, things that are really produced or utilized in industrial processes.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134245417&quot;:false,&quot;335551550&quot;:1,&quot;335551620&quot;:1}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0So, this became the kind of global center for the trade of these metals, and it also\u00a0established\u00a0the reference\u00a0prices for these metals, which were used throughout the global trading system. So that\u2019s a little bit of background about the LME, and my particular interest was to try to understand how that very historical market had evolved over the last 100 years to become what is a really quintessential city institution and also a very unique marketplace for the trading of a commodity.<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u2026<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134245417&quot;:false,&quot;335551550&quot;:1,&quot;335551620&quot;:1}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Professor Seddon (4:13):<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u2026<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">the earliest traders that were there on the LME, you can really think of them as kind of pioneering or buccaneering type capitalists, taking big risks and helping to intermediate this market to bring these commodities across the world. And obviously, the organization of the LME\u00a0represented\u00a0the\u00a0kind of formal\u00a0organization of this exchange and became something of a model for the trading of other commodities in the US and other parts of the world.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134245417&quot;:false,&quot;335551550&quot;:1,&quot;335551620&quot;:1}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">All commodity markets were becoming more organized during this period of globalization. And then when we think about the context of the way in which trading was done in that period versus today, one striking difference is obviously the way in which technology has influenced trading and the way in which the market has become both an electronic marketplace and an open outcry voice-traded marketplace, which is\u00a0something that makes the LME quite unique.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0actually the\u00a0only marketplace that\u00a0remains\u00a0an\u00a0open outcry\u00a0marketplace in London, and I believe also in Europe, and that might be true globally. So,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0clung onto that trading practice and that trading process.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134245417&quot;:false,&quot;335551550&quot;:1,&quot;335551620&quot;:1}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">So, I think something that\u2019s interesting about looking at the LME is that you can see the way in which the legacy of that history also persists\u00a0into\u00a0the present in the way that the organization of the traders is structured, the way in which the market\u2019s structured.\u00a0So, what it\u2019s done is kind of layer on new technologies and new ways of trading and also new participant types.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134245417&quot;:false,&quot;335551550&quot;:1,&quot;335551620&quot;:1}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">So, something that I try to do in this article is talk about the way in which\u00a0that trading\u00a0has evolved from primarily being about\u00a0metals\u00a0merchants who are working in the service of the metals industry to becoming a more financialized marketplace. That is a marketplace where you also have banks, you also have hedge funds, and the way in which those new participants have arrived and then tried to work to change the structure of trading within the marketplace, which is why I say this is also a political story. And the reason that\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0a political story is that those\u00a0different types\u00a0of traders, although they are complementary, they\u00a0serve different audiences and different purposes. They also struggle with each other and battle with each other to shape that market.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134245417&quot;:false,&quot;335551550&quot;:1,&quot;335551620&quot;:1}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Waseda Podcasts: &quot;Rigorous Research, Real Impact&quot;-- Season 2, Ep. 4 Teaser\" width=\"422\" height=\"750\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/tuqB3H_LFzk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">About the Guest:<\/span><\/b><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134245417&quot;:false,&quot;335551550&quot;:6,&quot;335551620&quot;:6}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-88802\" src=\"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/assets\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0Z8_5836-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"337\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/assets\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0Z8_5836-scaled.jpg 2560w, https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/assets\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0Z8_5836-610x407.jpg 610w, https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/assets\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0Z8_5836-2000x1333.jpg 2000w, https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/assets\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0Z8_5836-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/assets\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0Z8_5836-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/assets\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0Z8_5836-2048x1365.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 337px) 100vw, 337px\" \/><br \/>\n\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/w-rdb.waseda.jp\/html\/100001964_en.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">Associate Professor Jack Seddon<\/span><\/a><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134245417&quot;:false,&quot;335551550&quot;:6,&quot;335551620&quot;:6}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Associate Professor Jack Seddon joined\u00a0Waseda\u00a0in 2019, where he works at the intersection between international political economy and economic history, employing theories of institutionalism and mixed research methods. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Oxford and has held visiting positions at the University of Pennsylvania, the Graduate Institute in Geneva, the European University Institute, and Georgetown University. Prof. Seddon is part of the Sterling Area Revisited Project, funded by the United Kingdom Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). He was also awarded a\u00a0Lloyd\u2019s of\u00a0London UK-US Fulbright Scholarship in 2019-2020 to examine issues in global risk markets. Before beginning his graduate studies, he worked as a capital markets lawyer in London and Brussels.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134245417&quot;:false,&quot;335551550&quot;:6,&quot;335551620&quot;:6}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">In addition to his own research, he hopes to inspire students to think about \u2013 and engage with \u2013 the many global challenges that we now face. He seeks graduate students interested in the field of political science with a focus on global economic governance, international political economy, or transnational governance in other issue areas.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134245417&quot;:false,&quot;335551550&quot;:6,&quot;335551620&quot;:6}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134245417&quot;:false,&quot;335551550&quot;:6,&quot;335551620&quot;:6}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In this podcast column, showcasing the fourth episode &#8220;The Politics of Market Design&#8221; of Season 2  [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":88804,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[81,117],"tags":[355,172,379,178],"class_list":["post-88796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-topic","tag-highlight-en","tag-history-en","tag-podcast-en","tag-research-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88796"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88796\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88807,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88796\/revisions\/88807"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}